People who bought this also bought...

The American Boy

England, 1819. Two enigmatic Americans arrive in London and soon after, a bank collapses. A man is found dead on a building site; another goes missing in the teeming stews of Seven Dials. A deathbed vigil ends in an act of theft and a beautiful heiress flirts with her inferiors. A strange destiny links each of these events to the American boy Edgar Allen Poe, brought to England by his foster father and sent to the leafy village of Stoke Newington to be educated.

Some Danger Involved: Barker & Llewelyn Series, Book 1

An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved", he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.

What Angels Fear: Sebastian St. Cyr, Book 1

It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.

The Bookseller's Tale: Oxford Medieval Mysteries, Book 1

Oxford, Spring 1353. When young bookseller Nicholas Elyot discovers the body of student William Farringdon floating in the river Cherwell, it looks like a drowning. Soon, however, Nicholas finds evidence of murder. Who could have wanted to kill this promising student? As Nicholas and his scholar friend Jordain try to unravel what lies behind William's death, they learn that he was innocently caught up in a criminal plot.

Recipes for Love and Murder

Meet Tannie Maria: a woman who likes to cook a lot and write a little. One Sunday morning, as Maria savours the breeze through the kitchen window whilst making apricot jam, she hears the screech and bump that announces the arrival of her good friend and editor, Harriet. What Maria doesn't realise is that Harriet is about to deliver the first ingredient in two new recipes (recipes for love and murder) and a whole basketful of challenges.

Bleeding Heart Square

Nineteen thirty-four, London. Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?

Magpie Murders: A Novel

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the best-selling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful.

A Dark So Deadly

Welcome to the Misfit Mob... It's where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can't get rid of but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it's his job to find out which museum it's been stolen from. But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting.

The Face of a Stranger: A William Monk Novel #1

A tragic accident leaves Inspector Monk with amnesia just moments after he solves the murder of a popular Crimean war hero. Forced to redo his entire investigation, a frustrated Monk faces a desperate murderer who will do anything to keep the inspector from discovering the truth twice.

The Weight of Ink

Set in the London of the 1660s and of the early 21st century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city, and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of 17th-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation.

The Lost Book of the Grail: A Novel

Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library, nurturing his obsession with the Holy Grail and researching his perennially unfinished guidebook to the medieval cathedral. But when Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester to digitize the library's manuscripts, Arthur's tranquility is broken. Appalled by the threat of modern technology, he sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit - and a fellow Grail fanatic.

A Lady in the Smoke: A Victorian Mystery

Following a humiliating fourth season in London, Lady Elizabeth Fraser is on her way back to her ancestral country estate when her train careens off the rails and bursts into flames. Though she is injured, she manages to drag herself and her unconscious mother out of the wreckage, and amid the chaos that ensues, a brilliant young railway surgeon saves her mother's life. Elizabeth feels an immediate connection with Paul Wilcox - though society would never deem a medical man eligible for the daughter of an earl.

The Seventh Sun: Dan Clifford, Book 1

A seemingly random murder alerts scientist Dan Clifford to a global conspiracy that stretches from the halls of Washington to the Honduran coast. Illegal undersea activities have unwittingly uncovered a primordial secret that is wreaking havoc on aquatic life and the local human population. When the CDC and the full resources of a US "threat interdiction" team fails to uncover the source of the devastation, Dan and a brilliant marine biologist, Rachel Sullivan, must race to unravel an unimaginable, ancient mystery in the murky depths.

His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae

The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country's finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.

Masked Ball at Broxley Manor: A Royal Spyness Novella

At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.

The Strangler Vine

India, 1837: William Avery is a young soldier with few prospects except rotting away in campaigns in India; Jeremiah Blake is a secret political agent gone native, a genius at languages and disguises, disenchanted with the whole ethos of British rule, but who cannot resist the challenge of an unresolved mystery.

A Test of Wills

Ian Rutledge returns to his career at Scotland Yard after years fighting in the First World War. Unknown to his colleagues he is still suffering from shell shock, and is burdened with the guilt of having had executed a young soldier on the battlefield for refusing to fight. A jealous colleague has learned of his secret and has managed to have Rutledge assigned to a difficult case which could spell disaster for Rutledge whatever the outcome. A retired officer has been murdered, and Rutledge goes to investigate.

The Wild Inside: A Novel of Suspense

For fans of Louise Penny, C. J. Box, and Nevada Barr comes a haunting crime novel set in Glacier National Park, where one man finds himself on a collision course with the dark heart of the wild and the even darker heart of human nature.

Birdcage Walk

It is1792 and Europe is seized by political turmoil and violence. Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol's housing boom, and he has everything to lose from social upheaval and the prospect of war. Diner believes that Lizzie's independent, questioning spirit must be coerced and subdued. She belongs to him.

Conclave: A Novel

The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, 118 cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.

The Dry: A Novel

After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago, when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn't tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London

Judith Flanders, one of Britain's foremost social historians, explores the world portrayed so vividly in Dickens' novels, showing life on the streets of London in colorful, fascinating detail. From the moment Charles Dickens, the century's best-loved English novelist and London's greatest observer, arrived in the city in 1822, he obsessively walked its streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities, and cruelties.

The Royal Wulff Murders

A local fisherman lands more than he bargained for when he pulls a dead body out of Montana’s Madison River. Sheriff Martha Ettinger takes on the case and soon comes into the company of reclusive artist, Montana newcomer, and ex-PI Sean Stranahan. After teaming up to investigate, Martha and Sean soon uncover evidence that the murder has ties to one of the state’s biggest industries: fly fishing.

Publisher's Summary

From the number one best-selling author of The American Boy and The Silent Boy comes a brand-new historical thriller set during the time of the Great Fire of London. The first of an exciting new series of novels.

London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul's is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a disgraced printer and reluctant government informer.

In the aftermath of the fire, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul's, in a tomb that should have been empty. The man's body has been mutilated, and his thumbs have been tied behind his back. Under orders from the government, Marwood is tasked with hunting down the killer across the devastated city. But at a time of dangerous internal dissent and the threat of foreign invasion, Marwood finds his investigation leads him into treacherous waters - and across the path of a determined, beautiful and vengeful young woman.

What the Critics Say

"The Ashes of London is the book we all dream of writing and of reading: a crime thriller that pushes the pages over with effortless ease, while at the same time weaving an intricate, delicate, delight of a tapestry that draws us into a time and place that are so rich, so perfectly balanced that we walk alongside the characters, inhabit their shoes, feel their fear and taste their hope, all written in Andrew Taylor's beautiful hand-crafted prose. This is a book to revel in, a joy and a delight. Definitely one of the must-reads of the year." (Manda Scott, best-selling author of the Boudica Dreaming series) "Praise for Andrew Taylor: Taylor mastery of plot and character show to great effect in a story that has a depth few other historical crime novels can match." (Sunday Times) "As a writer, Taylor wears his learning lightly and shares with Hilary Mantel the capacity to take the reader directly into a vanished world." (Times Literary Supplement )

I enjoy historical fiction and I loved the setting of this story in London just after the Great Fire; it whet my appetite to learn more about the reconstruction of the city. I’ve visited London numerous occasions and I know that most of Wren’s vision for the new city never came to pass, but I don’t know why… I’m looking forward to reading more on the topic.

The story in this book was very entertaining, and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I was better able to keep track of who was who! (I’m terrible at remembering names). I really appreciated the author’s style: fluid and descriptive enough that I got a good feeling for what life was like in late 17th century London, and yet he didn’t drone on about every last detail so I still got to use my imagination to build up the world in my mind.

If you enjoy historic novels you will really enjoy this one. Taking place in the ashes of London after the Great Fire of 1666 the mystery just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Well developed characters intertwine with historic events and some of the real players even make an appearance. The fire rid London of many of the rats that brought the plague to its' people but not all of them got fried by the fire.

The devastating fire of London in 1666 is the vivid backdrop to two main interweaving stories involving the daughter, Catherine Lovett, of a fugitive regicide, and those hunting him down. An atmosphere of fear pervades the time as the return of the monarchy threatens the Puritans, particularly the Fifth Monarchists who still strove to replace the monarchy by King Jesus. Caught in the middle is James Marwood, a government clerk who is enlisted to help with the investigation of a murdered man found in the ruins of St Paul’s cathedral.

More murders are discovered and a complex web of deceit unfolds that links Catherine and Marwood. Many additional characters are introduced, both real and imagined, whose actions contribute to this gripping novel mixing historical fact with intriguing fiction.

It took me a while to get into the story. I actually listened to the first 5 chapters twice, but after I became familiar with the main players I couldn’t stop listening eager to hear what happened to them.

The narrator does a first class job of dramatizing the story.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Rachel Redford

4/27/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Mystery and murder in 'the dunnest smoke of hell'"

I picked this title not because of Andrew Taylor's awards for historical crime writing, but because it's read by Leighton Pugh. Having spent the first three months of last year mesmerised by Pugh's fantastic 116-hour unabridged narration of Samuel Pepys' Diary on Naxos (downloadable on Audible), I thought The Ashes of London set in Pepys' time read by Leighton Pugh had got to be a winner. And it is!

The backdrop is the Fire of London which has reduced the city around St Paul's to ashes amongst which James Marwood finds a dead body: not surprising, except that this one has had his thumbs tied together before being murdered. It is his job to uncover the crime. The ashy mud of the ruins still smouldering in places made me think of Lady Macbeth's prayer for the 'dunnest smoke of hell' to hide her regicide: in the same way the ash in this taut crime mystery is a cloak for murder and intrigue, a cover for eaves droppers and informants in these dangerous times of the Restoration. These are violent times and there are more murders and more deceit and cover-up.

No-one can be trusted - in politics, at court, in the ashy ruins picked over by desperate poor people- and least of all by blood relatives. Marwood is in danger because his father is a hunted regicide and young Cat Lovett, the parallel main character whose life becomes entwined dangerously with Marwood's, has fled following a scene of violence from the man she loathes whom her guardian uncle is forcing her to marry.

There are some magnificent filmic scenes throughout: Marwood's haunting memories of King Charles l's bleeding head held aloft at his execution, which he witnessed as a boy; the terrifying pursuit through stone passages to the roof-tops of St Paul's overlooking the devastation below which ends in more violence. A man is murdered whilst riding with his hounds, a man mistrusted by Cat. Why do the dogs wag their tails and not savage the murderer lurking in the bushes? The whole novel is intensely alive, teeming with visual and sensory detail, the historical background woven in seamlessly to heighten the tense atmosphere of threat, plot and intrigue.

And with his range of voices, mood and pace, Leighton Pugh drives forward the whole story in all its complexities. Definitely a winner!

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Gabrielle Harvey-Jones

7/8/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very enjoyable!"

I found both the writing and the reading of this book very involving and pleasing! The book had a convincing period feel, with some interesting twists and turns.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

bex4ad

6/24/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Really great historical drama"

Loved the characters and the description of London. Thoroughly engaging and very well read. Totally recommend this.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Rogayah

Reading, United Kingdom

6/8/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"The St Paul's of the Great Fire of London"

The burning of the Cathedral of St Pauls and its subsequent re-buliding is an important part of this story. Characters with an agenda wrestle and plot to get their way doing harm and murder on their way.

This seemed a slight story with the destruction of cathedral as a back drop at the start of the story but it soon became a gripping tale of injustices done to the weak against the tyranny of the strong and powerful whose beliefs were sustained by the knowledge and certainty of having their God's blessing for their work.

It is a surprise that a seemingly dry topic can be so gripping and exciting.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

J

10/20/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"not quite my cup of tea"

I'm sure this will be a winner with lovers of historical fiction and the concept of a mystery set after the great fire of London was a good idea and it was well executed but I fund it a bit slow and had several attempts to get connected with the story, but that could just be me!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Tony

8/27/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"An excellent book"

I felt as though I were living in that very place the author's descriptions areas so vivid SUPERB

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Mrs

12/12/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Could not put it down"

What did you like most about The Ashes of London?

It was full to the brim with everything. As this is currently topical I was aware of what happened but this book weaved a thrilling tale around it all.

What did you like best about this story?

Well written and factual

Which character – as performed by Leighton Pugh – was your favourite?

I couldn't single one out except to say that the women did not sound like pantomime dames which was excellent

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Virtually

Any additional comments?

Am trying desperately to find a similar book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

E

SOUTH CROYDON, United Kingdom

8/17/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Gently compelling with historical interest"

The story pulled me in at the beginning with the intriguing characters not knowing until later how they connected. From then it flowed nicely always giving me a good feel of London and Londoners whilst the whodunnit element kept me gripped.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

8/15/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"The narrator was excellent. Very easy to listen to"

Riveting story. Clever plot with some historical fact. Conjured up picture of harsh living standards

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.